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The Fuzzy Math of the U.S. House of Representatives (?!?)
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Clearly I am missing something. The House passed the make Blue Dog Democrats look bad anti-flag burning amendment today. But here's the vote count:

The 286-130 outcome was never in doubt in the House, which had passed the measure or one like it five times in recent years. The amendment's supporters expressed optimism that a Republican gain of four seats in last November's election could produce the two-thirds approval needed in the Senate as well after four failed attempts since 1989.

By my count 286/435 is .657, which is not two thirds of the House of Representatives. Article V of the Constitution reads as follows:

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution ...

Now, by my reading, the Constitution mandates that two-thirds of the members of Congress vote to pass an amendment, not two-thirds of all members present. So either I am oblivious to something, or the Associated Press has been seriously bamboozled. Not counting matters of Iraq policy, I find the former more likely than the latter. What am I missing? Have I miscounted the number of members of Congress? Was there some later amendment which changed procedures for amending the constitution? Has the text been interpreted to mean two-thirds of all members present?

Update: It turns out that "two thirds of the House" means "two thirds of those members present". I'm sure this led to all sorts of games of political chicken back before the telegram or wide use of railroads.

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Last updated by Nicholas Beaudrot on 07:24 05 July 2005